How-To: Hold & Mute Calls on the iPhone 4

The new iPhone 4 does away with the ‘hold’ button during a call, but what if you want to put your caller on hold? Don’t worry, you still can.

Apple’s iPhone 4, which was released less than a week ago, introduced FaceTime, a new video calling feature currently exclusive to the device. It’s designed to let users enter into a video session during a call; however, in order for the feature to be available, one of the default call options still found on older iPhones had to go. The one that got the cut? The ability to place a call on hold.

Old Vs. New: A call on an iPhone 3GS and a call on the new iPhone 4

One concerned Apple customer recently emailed Steve Jobs asking the Apple CEO about the issue. As usual Jobs replied with a simple response, stating that the hold functionality is actually the same as using mute. His exact words being: “Hold doesn’t do anything more than Mute.” However, although Jobs is technically correct, quickly pressing mute only stops the sound on one end of the call, whereas the hold function will stop audio from both ends.

So if you’re an iPhone 4 owner and you want to place your calls on hold rather than using the mute option, there is a way. To place your call on hold, all you have to do is keep your finger pressed on the mute option for a few seconds. Now instead of your call being muted, it will be on hold.